The San Jose Sharks and the Colorado Avalanche meet in NHL action from the Ball Arena on Saturday night.
The San Jose Sharks will be looking to rebound from a 4-1 loss at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets in their last game. Brent Burns leads the Sharks with 12 points including a team-high 11 assists while Logan Couture and Timo Meier each have 11 points with 5 goals and 6 assists with Couture boasting a team-best +7 plus/minus rating this season. Tomas Herly and Jonathan Dahlen each have a team-high 6 goals as well on the year. Adin Hill has posted a 4-3 record with a 2.81 GAA and a .904 save percentage in goal for the Sharks while James Reimer’s gone 3-2-1 with a 1.82 GAA and a .940 save percentage this season.
The Colorado Avalanche will look to build on their 7-1 rout of the Vancouver Canucks in their last game. Gabriel Landeskog and Nazem Kadri each have a team-high 11 points while J.T. Compher and Nathan MacKinnon each have 10 points with Compher boasting a team-high 6 goals while MacKinnon has a team-high 9 assists. Landeskog also leads the Avs with a +7 plus/minus rating as well this season. Darcy Kuemper’s seen the bulk of Colorado’s action between the pipes, going 5-4 with a 2.68 GAA and a .911 save percentage this season.
San Jose is 19-40 in their last 59 games as a road underdog and 2-6 in their last 8 Saturday games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games as an underdog. Colorado is 37-17 in their last 54 games overall and 37-15 in their last 52 games as a home favorite while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall.
I was dead wrong about the Avs against Vancouver as I thought the Canucks had a good chance in that game as the Avalanche struggled earlier in the year without Nathan MacKinnon. With that said, I’m a glutton for punishment. The Sharks are a fairly decent hockey team that’s been playing well to start the year and this just feels like too much plus money to leave on the table. I’ll take my chances with San Jose in this matchup.